TikTok algorithms trap: if you want to go viral, make content about Recruiting office
In June alone, the video with the hashtag #Recruiting office received 470 million views in Ukrainian TikTok (3 billion all-time). At the same time, 13 thousand posts with this hashtag were published within a month (62 thousand all-time). This is the first most popular hashtag in the News and Entertainment category. It is increasingly being used on the TikTokers pages, which seem to have nothing to do with the topic of the Recruiting office and mobilization. That's because this topic gets many more views.
We decided to look at how and whom TikTok encourages to make videos about Recruiting office. To do this, we uploaded the latest posts by TikTokers whose videos appeared in the search results using the hashtag #Recruiting office. Along with the reach, we analyzed how many Russians are following this topic.
It is worth noting that TikTok's search is algorithmic. This means that when you search for videos on a particular topic, you get not the most popular ones but those that the platform recommends for viewing, i.e., a hodgepodge of the most popular videos by millionaire bloggers and random fresh videos that TikTok is still testing for potential virality.
Out of the 100 videos that Tiktok offered to watch under the hashtag #Recruiting office at the end of June, we identified 91 unique authors. Within a week, five of them were blocked by TikTok itself, which means that there is no doubt that those videos, like the accounts themselves, violated the platform's policy (most likely by posting stolen content and Russian disinformation).
Here, we would like to draw attention to a problem that we have identified in our study of YouTube's algorithms: the recommendation algorithms of major platforms often pick up videos and spread them before the moderation algorithms responsible for removing and blocking unwanted content get to them. And this problem seems to be relevant for TikTok as well.
The trap of indirect rewards
We have uploaded and analyzed all the latest videos published by 86 TikTokers, whose content was included in the search results using the hashtag #Recruiting office.
In 69 of them (80%), the average number of views of videos with #Recruiting office was higher than the average number of views of the rest of the content on the page.
Sometimes, the situation reached the point of absurdity. For example, a page about fishing, whose videos received a maximum of 300 thousand (and usually 10-20 thousand) views, publishes a humorous video from the reeds with the text "19 May. So where is your Recruiting office?" And it gets 3.4 million viewers.
Or an Alabama dog kennel posts a humorous video in which, while walking a dog, he notices that, for some reason, no one from the Recruiting office approaches him. And it garners 4.2 million views instead of the usual thousand (maximum ten).
This is natural: users and TikTok are quick to respond to what is interesting. If the topic of updating data and Recruiting office has become popular in society after the new law on mobilization, then the increase in coverage and jokes on this topic are also quite logical.
After all, if the topic is of concern to many people, it is likely to be abused by unscrupulous content makers.
Dishonest (?) lawyers
The first category of TikTokers who have shown an extraordinary interest in the topic of Recruiting office are lawyers and attorneys who actually sell their legal services through short videos.
Again, on the one hand, this seems "normal" — the adoption of a new law raises many questions, and communication often says one thing, but in reality, i.e., in the Recruiting office, something else happens. On the other hand, in the modern reality of social media, this also means the emergence of those who only pretend to be lawyers but instead spread "treason," discredit mobilization and call for disobedience or aggression against the Recruiting office.
For example, the lawyer Boltyk, whom we had already written about when we were looking into who is promoting the anti-mobilization movement in Ukraine (and the messages of Russian propaganda). His video "The Recruiting office and a medical commission recognized a disabled person as fit for service" was included in our search results. The video calling for not updating the data in the "Reserve+" (a mobile app in Ukraine for updating your data, whereas you can serve in the army) did not make it to our search results, but this did not prevent it from collecting 885 thousand views.
Or the profile of "dimapoltava", which positions itself as "Protecting the rights of drivers," but in fact, its feed mostly contains videos about conflicts with the police, individual cases of violation of driver's rights, and guidelines such as "How to communicate with the Recruiting office during a car stop by a police officer?" Although the author does not produce outright disinformation, he actively encourages viewers to have verbal confrontations with police and Recruiting office representatives, which, without sufficient legal knowledge, are likely to result in scandals and detentions. But Russian propaganda is on the plus side. Someone will watch it, start provoking ordinary guys who work in the Recruiting office after the fighting, and eventually film the conflict on video, which can be distributed further to incite inner conflicts in Ukraine.
By the way, quite often, the videos that illustrate what is popular today with the hashtag #Recruiting office on the TikTok Creative Centre page (this is the official dashboard with analytics on TikTok; it contains examples of videos with trending hashtags; these illustrative videos change daily) teach viewers how to engage in a verbal altercation with Recruiting office employees. This means that this video format is quite popular on the platform.
But even if you don't watch such emotional and manipulative videos that teach how to commit provocations, it is easy to come across content from people with a rather dubious reputation on TikTok.
For example, in his video, lawyer Rostyslav Kravets, who also appeared in our search results, tells for 15 minutes how men should behave after 18 May(the day of implementations of a new mobilization in Ukraine). In the middle of a generally reasoned and informative monologue, he occasionally inserts manipulative theses such as 'the police are not happy about being thrown at their people.' Rostyslav Kravets himself is known for supporting judges who ruled against Maidan activists, spreading Russian narratives, and being used as a lawyer to file lawsuits on behalf of the scandalous judge Pavlo Vovk. We would not advise uncritical TikTok users to view Kravets' content. Nevertheless, at the time of publication of this article, his page has more than 350,000 followers and 1.7 million likes.
In search of unstressful news
According to the latest data on media consumption from OPORA, 26.8% of Ukrainians use TikTok to get news. Consider this another reminder that the platform has long ceased to be merely entertaining.
Some reputable media outlets are already taking TikTok seriously. For example, in addition to lawyers and humor bloggers, our search results included professional videos from Hromadske, Ukrainska Pravda, and Slidstvo.info.
Besides them, there are several dozen accounts that best fit the description of "anonymous manipulative aggregators." Their pages are not personalized (although they may have some random names in the title) and often do not contain any profile description (or a link to a closed Telegram channel). Videos are published without any system, and this is mostly, if not generated, then stolen content from elsewhere.
And amidst the generally low reach and low number of views, some videos reach an audience of several hundred thousand, if not millions. You can guess what kind of videos we're talking about.
Sometimes, discrediting the mobilization becomes the main goal of the channel, as in the case of the popular (2.1 million likes and 130 thousand followers) TikTok account "Recruiting office AGAINST." This account actually accumulates all videos against the Recruiting office in one place, adding emotional captions and headlines to them. In particular, it also publishes some videos of the above-mentioned lawyers.
Imperfect algorithms, dangerous recommendations
Despite all efforts, Tiktok is still unable to effectively counteract artificially generated and disinformation content. Three of the TikTok pages we studied state in their profile descriptions that their previous (more successful) accounts have been blocked. And this would seem to be a good thing. But they have created new ones, and the updated pages are picked up by algorithms, appear in search results, and gain thousands of followers again.
Among them, for example, is an illegal fugitive from Ukraine, a songwriter about a fugitive or "let the men go free" who does not disdain to record videos about "who really benefited from the attack on Ohmatdyt" (no, not Russia).
However, in addition to the ineffective blocking of manipulators and (pro)Russian content creators, the fight against anonymous fake news makers seems to be equally ineffective.
After all, even TikTok accounts that have published only six videos in their entire existence are able to get millions of views for the "most viral" one, while the rest do not reach even a few thousand. This means that blocking Russian bot farms has extremely short-term results.
Therefore, the best recommendation for TikTok users is to carefully create and review your subscription feed, which is not what the platform recommends. This way, you can be sure that your feed will not contain fakes, (pro)Russian figures, or, for example, a video from a Ukrainian dashcam with a sound and text track containing fake news about the Recruiting office, summonses, or electricity, depending on which topic is most painful for Ukrainians today.
We continue to publish a series of materials on the role of TikTok in Russian information campaigns in Ukraine and the occupied territories. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed.
